The Fermata
| File:The Fermata cover.jpg First edition with fermata (pause) music notation | |
| Author | Nicholson Baker |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | March 1994 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback, paperback) |
| Pages | 303 |
| ISBN | 9780679415862 |
| LC Class | 93026492 |
The Fermata is a 1994 erotic novel by Nicholson Baker. It is about a man named Arno Strine who can stop time, and uses this ability to embark on a series of sexual adventures. Like Baker's previous novel Vox, The Fermata was controversial amongst critics yet was also a bestseller.[1]
Plot
Arno Strine, a temp in Boston, discovers he can stop time when he is a young man. He works on this power, and learns how to trigger and control these time stoppages. However, instead of becoming rich or a diabolic criminal, Strine becomes an elaborate voyeur. He stops time so that he can see women naked, and eventually creates scenarios that he can watch after he allows time to start again. But despite his enjoyment of this power, Arno wants a real relationship, and he overcomes his shyness to begin a relationship. When he finally consummates this relationship, his power to stop time passes to his girlfriend, whose own time adventures begin. Arno works on the story of this time power, under the title "The Fermata."
Reception
In contrast, Tom Bissell argued in GQ that The Fermata was an "unlikely masterpiece" which set a "very high lit-porn standard."[2] The Independent judged it "playfully erotic."[3] Summing up the debate in the London Review of Books, Adam Mars-Jones wrote that "Nicholson Baker has chosen as the premise and conclusion of his novel an idea that contemporary culture has much difficulty with: the innocence of male sexual desire" and opined that "if Baker had found a way of dramatising his theme, it would be a braver and less self-satisfied book."[4]
Screen adaptations
References
- ↑ O'Mahony, John (11 January 2003). "Profile: Nicholson Baker". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ↑ Bissell, Tom (5 August 2011). "A Review of Nicholson Baker's Latest Book "House of Holes"". GQ. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ↑ Thorne, Matt (2 September 2011). "House of Holes, By Nicholson Baker". The Independent. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
- ↑ Mars-Jones, Adam (24 March 1994). "Larceny". London Review of Books. Archived from the original on 30 December 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.